Lewis Hamilton has called for his Ferrari team to “go further” in pursuit of the success they want to achieve together. His rallying cry comes as his maiden season representing the famous red team threatens to fizzle out with a whimper, with Ferrari unable to match the pace of their rivals at present.
The last two races, in Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Singapore, have brought little joy for the Italian outfit and their drivers. Hamilton finished both in eighth place, though the latter was because of a five-second time penalty imposed after the end of Sunday’s Grand Prix because of the amount of times he had to cut corners in the final stages after his brakes failed, dropping him below Fernando Alonso.
Team-mate Charles Leclerc has largely fared better this season but he too has found things tough of late, finishing ninth in Baku and sixth at the Marina Bay Circuit on Sunday. Both drivers said afterwards that Ferrari are currently not producing the level of performance they need to better or even match their immediate rivals.
Mercedes are now 27 points ahead in the constructors’ championship and Red Bull are just eight behind, despite Max Verstappen having scored almost all their points by himself. In a motivational message posted on social media on Monday, Hamilton told fans he and his colleagues will give everything they can to restore F1’s most successul team in history to its former glory.
He wrote: “After a tough week, it feels good to be home. I had some time to reflect on my journey from Singapore and the main emotion I’m feeling is gratitude. The support and love I have felt since losing Roscoe has been a powerful reminder that, even when things sometimes seem dark, there is so much good in the world. You just have to look for it.
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“I’m looking at the positives on track too. The media headlines only tell one story: one where we don’t get things quite right, or things don’t go our way. But what I have been focussed on over the past few months is the other story. The one about how this team responds when things go wrong. How we get back up, and we go again.
“Yesterday was the perfect example. We got the strategy right, but the brake issue set us back just when momentum was building. So now we get back in the factory, learn from this last race, and plan for the next one.
“I’m really proud of this team and want to help deliver the results they and the Tifosi deserve. I see the progress we are making, and the hard work that goes into every race, but this is Ferrari.
“Progress alone is not enough. To achieve greatness we need to go further, be better. There is so much we can achieve together, and if we can build on our successes, and change the things we need to, I fully believe we will get there.”